Nelson Mandela
It goes without saying that Nelson Mandela occupies the top spot in this list, for his revolution was so multifaceted and so universal that it supersedes his mere secular function as the father of a free South Africa. Mandela ranks among the great philosophical revolutionaries like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, but also among the strong men of the African Struggle who were prepared to fight and shed blood for liberation.
Mandela was born in 1918, to a minor branch of the Thembu royal family in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. At the dawn of the modern liberation age in South Africa, he began his education in a Methodist missionary school, and then the great incubator of nationalist thought in South Africa, Fort Hare University. He was also one of few black men to study at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, where he also practiced law.
It was in Johannesburg that he began his involvement in African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943, and co-founding its Youth League in 1944. Much of his professional work was in defending South African nationalists caught in the tortuous legal system that was the main official weapon against the independence movement. He was a member of the South African Communist Party, in association with which he was instrumental in founding the militant arm of the African National Congress, Umkhonto we Sizwe, or the ‘Spear of the Nation‘.
He led a brief and abortive sabotage campaign, and in 1962, he was arrested for conspiring to overthrow the state, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Thus began the 27-year term of imprisonment that would found the Mandela legend. While he was thus isolated from much of the trench work of the anti-apartheid movement of the 1970s and 1980s, he remained symbolically present, and his name became a rallying cry of freedom for a generation of black South Africans.
When he emerged from incarceration in 1990, both white and black South Africans were amazed at his reconciliatory tone, and it was on that basis that he went about the lengthy business of negotiating a transitional constitution. He served a single obligatory term as president of an independent South Africa, but with relief, he retired in 1999 and settled into the role of universal advocate of peace, reconciliation and racial harmony. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, and he died on November 5, 2013, his career and legacy unsullied by corruption and power hunger. He truly was the revolutionary for all seasons.
Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
The African Report – How the CIA got Patrice Lumumba
Telesure – Patrice Lumumba: Revolution, Freedom, and Legacy in DR Congo
The Guardian – Patrice Lumumba: The Most Important Assassination Of The 20th Century
DW – Eduardo Mondlane: The Architect Of Mozambique’s National Unity
RFI – Burkina Faso: Thomas Sankara Assassination Trial To Begin On 11 October
Aljazeera – Burkinabe Ex-President Compaore Charged In Thomas Sankara Murder
The Conversation – How Frelimo Betrayed Samora Machel’s Dream Of A Free Mozambique
BBC News – Robert Mugabe: Is Zimbabwe’s Ex-President A Hero Or Villain?
The New York Times – Apartheid Inquiry Is Told Details of Biko Killing
CNN World News – S. African Officers Confess To Killing Biko
National Geographic Channel – How Nelson Mandela Fought Apartheid—And Why His Work Is Not Complete